A Butterfly Flaps Its Wings
I had gone to join the tree sit in November of 1997 after hearing about the destruction of the Redwood forest on the hillside near Stafford. When I arrived at the camp, I met people who shared the same beliefs that I had, and were prepared to do everything possible to save the forest.
To stop the developers from cutting down the trees, we were taking it in turns to climb and sit in a tree we had called Luna. We constructed platforms that sat 180 feet from the ground, and that we could live on for days at a time.
I first met Julia Butterfly Hill at our base camp and immediately recognised her as an extremely honest and kind person. All the people at the camp wanted to save Luna, and I saw that Julia believed we could. While some of us were angry at the actions of the timber company, Julia just wanted to get up into the tree and talk to it.
I remember the day when she left to sit in Luna. As she was walking away from the house with her supplies, she turned and said, "See you guys in two weeks!"
It was 738 days later that Julia's feet touched the ground again. By that time, the timber company had agreed not to cut Luna down and to save the surrounding trees. Julia told me later, 'I made a promise to the tree not to come down until I had done everything I could to tell the world about the problem and to stop the destruction'. I think she kept her promise.
